David Bullard, South Africa’s most famous blogger (now ex-blogger), is a 14 year veteran of the famous (some would say infamous) Sunday Times Out To Lunch column.
Nick van der Leek and Razia Pillay cornered him in his cubicle, and threatened him with a flashy silver microcassette recorder. He spilled the beans on everything from Blogging to MacBeth, from Surviving Gunshots Point Blank to a possible TV Talk Show.
Part 1: Everything you DIDN’T know about David Bullard
RP: Is it okay if this goes on Nick’s blog?
Bullard: Sure it is. Well, since I’m not blogging now Nick’s gonna take over for me. He’s going to be my vicarious blogger. [Laughter] Like Boswell to Dr. Johnson*.
NVDL: So you’re finished and klaar with blogging?
Bullard: Yeah.
NVDL: No second thoughts?
Bullard: No. You know, it’s a money issue. It takes up a lot of time.
[Pausing to reflect]
Primarily it’s a money issue; because I was spending…I worked about R25 000 worth of billable hours a month, and as a freelancer – I’m not even employed by the Sunday Times – that desk I pay a rent for…
NVDL: Are you freelance?
Bullard: Yup. I pay rent for that desk. Then there’s a retainer on Out to Lunch, because it’s been running for 14 years nearly, so that was the only way to do it. Now what was happening on the blog…we got in after the attack of the blogosphere [column], and it built up, and it built up very well. And, you know, thanks to the help of Gregor and Colin and the guys downstairs. It built up very well but then actually I sort’ve felt I had, I thought a natural talent for it. To annoy people.
[Laughter]
So we built it up, and I would have thought – and I know this is on record [gestures vaguely to cassette recorder] – I would have thought if you built it up to be a high traffic blog it would logically have to be in a commercial organization [with] some thought of remuneration. Because it was taking a lot of time. You know I read all the comments. I’ve responded to some of the comments; I’ve interacted with some of the people.
NVDL: A lot of it was vitriol…
Bullard: Well it always is, isn’t it? Sadly. Uhm…I’m going to come to that in a moment, but…yeah. In September I got to that stage where I was doing calculations; I worked out what I was doing – coming in every day, going on that blog; putting something new up, reading the comments – was taking 2/3 hours a day. You know in three hours you can write an article that’s gonna earn you five grand.
RP: Yeah.
Bullard: You know, and I was turning down work because I didn’t have time; because I was doing blogging for free. So it was very simple, the situation: I couldn’t afford to blog.
NVDL: [Nodding] Mmmm.
Bullard: Because it was eating into time. And if I was away, let’s say on a business trip, if I go on a column which is four days without blogging trip, I’d store stuff up. You know I was reasonably conscientious about it. That was one thing.
I think the second thing, also, is the…the hostility. I mean I get a lot of hate emails. I don’t mind that. I mean in 13 or 14 years you do upset a lot of people, and if you’re being sued for six million by Jacob Zuma then frankly, anything goes. But I think some of them were unnecessarily nasty. I mean, in the sense [it’ not] me reading them, it’s my wife. Now you know, back in March she spent a day mopping blood up in my house. Which was my blood; [she was] wondering whether I’d walk again. She doesn’t actually need to have somebody say that I staged my own shooting. ‘Cos to her, it’s very hurtful.
NVDL: Mmm
Bullard: I know people will say: ‘Oh but people will say that anyway’. Maybe they would, but I don’t need to interact with them. [I] don’t need to see it on a blog. And I didn’t really find that there wasn’t an awful lot of intelligent input.
NVDL: [Nodding] Mmm.
Bullard: There was *some* intelligent input, but it was greatly diluted by – if you’re hiding behind a mask and you don’t know-
NVDL: -An avatar, yes.
Bullard: Yeah, that’s right. You don’t know the sex, the race, or anything about any of the people, you can’t really have a meaningful conversation, can you? But it was an interesting experience.
NVDL: It’s unfair. Because the one person – you know who they are, while the other person is [anonymous]. It’s like this. If we’re in a conversation now, then we have to behave. We have to have manners. But if someone sits by their computer, then they can be cheeky and all that kind of thing.
Bullard: Yes. The classic was Justin. He put stuff up which was quite funny, but then he came to work here. We went to have lunch and we’ve now become good friends.
[Laughter]
Bullard: But he was putting all sorts of stuff up after the initial attack on the blogosphere. You don’t mind that, because part of the entertainment value is you’re dealing with something you don’t know. There’s a perception that various readers have of me out there. Very arrogant, cigar smoking, whiskies – But it’s all an image; it’s built up. It’s fine.
RP/NVDL: Mmmm
Bullard: The good side of that image is [GARBLED] a lifestyle function to do. Like this Sunday I’m MC-ing a Champagne do. I’m doing Whiskey do’s, fast cars and things. You build up that image, and you attract an awful lot of business to yourself which is quite pleasant, I have to say. Travelling down the sharp end of planes. It’s a persona; it doesn’t necessarily mean the person in the photograph with whiskey and cigars is you. People think I smoke three cigars a day. When I go to a function I try to smoke a cigar because people sort’ve expect it.
So there are people out there, people who read things who will say: “He’s an arrogant bastard. He’s this, he’s that you know. He’s a rascist.” All sorts of great stuff. And you can’t actually get upset. Because it’s the same people who phone [Radio] 702. You’re not actually going to turn a lot of people’s opinions around. You’re going to turn some around.
RP: Yeah.
NVDL: But it seems like the people who react are the uninformed few, not so?
Bullard: Many are actually very informed. Some of them miss irony. So, they’ve really read you literally. I mean that applies to English readers. I mean I’ve been absolutely attacked for using the word ‘Poms’. So I’ve been attacked by the English who don’t think I’m South African. The Afrikaans say I attack them. As Mondli [Makhanya, editor of the Sunday Times] says in the last book, I’m an equal opportunity offender. It’s very often by people who haven’t understood the irony.
RP: But you said that you don’t – one of the reasons you don’t blog is because of the money. Should you know that you could earn money blogging, would you start again?
Bullard: No.
Tune in here next Wednesday, for Part 2. Bullard in Tights
*A reference to early versions of Sherlock Holmes
From Car Torque website: David Bullard’s dry sense of humour, exceptional journalistic skills and “tell it like it is” attitude to life makes him an ideal presenter for Car Torque. His sometimes irreverent, blunt opinions are both rare and entertaining, yet he is fair, saying just as easily if he likes something as he would if he dislikes it. He offers his personal opinion – like it or lump it.
He is passionate about cars. He wont be able (or want to) tell you which engine oil to use or what an overhead camshaft does, but he is an excellent driver who sees motoring as an important part of his lifestyle.
David was born in London in 1952 and emigrated to South Africa in 1981. He spent twenty-four years working in financial markets before a career switch to journalism. His “Out To Lunch” column in the Sunday Times has been running since 1994 and is one of the country’s best-read columns. He has written on cars for the Sunday Times Lifestyle section since 2001, and is consulting editor on the newspapers Motoring and Sport subscriber magazine. He also writes for several other magazines including The Media, Food and Home Entertaining and Upfront. He is also a popular MC and after dinner speaker.
For more refer to search label: The Bullard Tapes
Nick van der Leek and Razia Pillay cornered him in his cubicle, and threatened him with a flashy silver microcassette recorder. He spilled the beans on everything from Blogging to MacBeth, from Surviving Gunshots Point Blank to a possible TV Talk Show.
Part 1: Everything you DIDN’T know about David Bullard
RP: Is it okay if this goes on Nick’s blog?
Bullard: Sure it is. Well, since I’m not blogging now Nick’s gonna take over for me. He’s going to be my vicarious blogger. [Laughter] Like Boswell to Dr. Johnson*.
NVDL: So you’re finished and klaar with blogging?
Bullard: Yeah.
NVDL: No second thoughts?
Bullard: No. You know, it’s a money issue. It takes up a lot of time.
[Pausing to reflect]
Primarily it’s a money issue; because I was spending…I worked about R25 000 worth of billable hours a month, and as a freelancer – I’m not even employed by the Sunday Times – that desk I pay a rent for…
NVDL: Are you freelance?
Bullard: Yup. I pay rent for that desk. Then there’s a retainer on Out to Lunch, because it’s been running for 14 years nearly, so that was the only way to do it. Now what was happening on the blog…we got in after the attack of the blogosphere [column], and it built up, and it built up very well. And, you know, thanks to the help of Gregor and Colin and the guys downstairs. It built up very well but then actually I sort’ve felt I had, I thought a natural talent for it. To annoy people.
[Laughter]
So we built it up, and I would have thought – and I know this is on record [gestures vaguely to cassette recorder] – I would have thought if you built it up to be a high traffic blog it would logically have to be in a commercial organization [with] some thought of remuneration. Because it was taking a lot of time. You know I read all the comments. I’ve responded to some of the comments; I’ve interacted with some of the people.
NVDL: A lot of it was vitriol…
Bullard: Well it always is, isn’t it? Sadly. Uhm…I’m going to come to that in a moment, but…yeah. In September I got to that stage where I was doing calculations; I worked out what I was doing – coming in every day, going on that blog; putting something new up, reading the comments – was taking 2/3 hours a day. You know in three hours you can write an article that’s gonna earn you five grand.
RP: Yeah.
Bullard: You know, and I was turning down work because I didn’t have time; because I was doing blogging for free. So it was very simple, the situation: I couldn’t afford to blog.
NVDL: [Nodding] Mmmm.
Bullard: Because it was eating into time. And if I was away, let’s say on a business trip, if I go on a column which is four days without blogging trip, I’d store stuff up. You know I was reasonably conscientious about it. That was one thing.
I think the second thing, also, is the…the hostility. I mean I get a lot of hate emails. I don’t mind that. I mean in 13 or 14 years you do upset a lot of people, and if you’re being sued for six million by Jacob Zuma then frankly, anything goes. But I think some of them were unnecessarily nasty. I mean, in the sense [it’ not] me reading them, it’s my wife. Now you know, back in March she spent a day mopping blood up in my house. Which was my blood; [she was] wondering whether I’d walk again. She doesn’t actually need to have somebody say that I staged my own shooting. ‘Cos to her, it’s very hurtful.
NVDL: Mmm
Bullard: I know people will say: ‘Oh but people will say that anyway’. Maybe they would, but I don’t need to interact with them. [I] don’t need to see it on a blog. And I didn’t really find that there wasn’t an awful lot of intelligent input.
NVDL: [Nodding] Mmm.
Bullard: There was *some* intelligent input, but it was greatly diluted by – if you’re hiding behind a mask and you don’t know-
NVDL: -An avatar, yes.
Bullard: Yeah, that’s right. You don’t know the sex, the race, or anything about any of the people, you can’t really have a meaningful conversation, can you? But it was an interesting experience.
NVDL: It’s unfair. Because the one person – you know who they are, while the other person is [anonymous]. It’s like this. If we’re in a conversation now, then we have to behave. We have to have manners. But if someone sits by their computer, then they can be cheeky and all that kind of thing.
Bullard: Yes. The classic was Justin. He put stuff up which was quite funny, but then he came to work here. We went to have lunch and we’ve now become good friends.
[Laughter]
Bullard: But he was putting all sorts of stuff up after the initial attack on the blogosphere. You don’t mind that, because part of the entertainment value is you’re dealing with something you don’t know. There’s a perception that various readers have of me out there. Very arrogant, cigar smoking, whiskies – But it’s all an image; it’s built up. It’s fine.
RP/NVDL: Mmmm
Bullard: The good side of that image is [GARBLED] a lifestyle function to do. Like this Sunday I’m MC-ing a Champagne do. I’m doing Whiskey do’s, fast cars and things. You build up that image, and you attract an awful lot of business to yourself which is quite pleasant, I have to say. Travelling down the sharp end of planes. It’s a persona; it doesn’t necessarily mean the person in the photograph with whiskey and cigars is you. People think I smoke three cigars a day. When I go to a function I try to smoke a cigar because people sort’ve expect it.
So there are people out there, people who read things who will say: “He’s an arrogant bastard. He’s this, he’s that you know. He’s a rascist.” All sorts of great stuff. And you can’t actually get upset. Because it’s the same people who phone [Radio] 702. You’re not actually going to turn a lot of people’s opinions around. You’re going to turn some around.
RP: Yeah.
NVDL: But it seems like the people who react are the uninformed few, not so?
Bullard: Many are actually very informed. Some of them miss irony. So, they’ve really read you literally. I mean that applies to English readers. I mean I’ve been absolutely attacked for using the word ‘Poms’. So I’ve been attacked by the English who don’t think I’m South African. The Afrikaans say I attack them. As Mondli [Makhanya, editor of the Sunday Times] says in the last book, I’m an equal opportunity offender. It’s very often by people who haven’t understood the irony.
RP: But you said that you don’t – one of the reasons you don’t blog is because of the money. Should you know that you could earn money blogging, would you start again?
Bullard: No.
Tune in here next Wednesday, for Part 2. Bullard in Tights
*A reference to early versions of Sherlock Holmes
From Car Torque website: David Bullard’s dry sense of humour, exceptional journalistic skills and “tell it like it is” attitude to life makes him an ideal presenter for Car Torque. His sometimes irreverent, blunt opinions are both rare and entertaining, yet he is fair, saying just as easily if he likes something as he would if he dislikes it. He offers his personal opinion – like it or lump it.
He is passionate about cars. He wont be able (or want to) tell you which engine oil to use or what an overhead camshaft does, but he is an excellent driver who sees motoring as an important part of his lifestyle.
David was born in London in 1952 and emigrated to South Africa in 1981. He spent twenty-four years working in financial markets before a career switch to journalism. His “Out To Lunch” column in the Sunday Times has been running since 1994 and is one of the country’s best-read columns. He has written on cars for the Sunday Times Lifestyle section since 2001, and is consulting editor on the newspapers Motoring and Sport subscriber magazine. He also writes for several other magazines including The Media, Food and Home Entertaining and Upfront. He is also a popular MC and after dinner speaker.
For more refer to search label: The Bullard Tapes
NVDL: My own firsthand impression of Bullard confirmed that he is both fair and astute, and actually, through all the jokes and irony, he actually has very altruistic and positive motives for the good people of this country. I also found him perceptive and sensitive, and as entertaining a conversationalist as his column suggests. Click on the image below to [enlarge and] read the first column Bullard wrote after he was shot.
No comments:
Post a Comment